The circuit is set to oscillate by inverting the output of the delay line and feeding that signal back to the input of the delay line with appropriate amplification.
In contrast to a Phase-shift oscillator in which LC components are lumped, the capacitances and inductances are distributed through the length of the delay line.
The timing of a circuit using a physical delay line is usually much more accurate.
The delay-line oscillator may be allowed to free run or it may be gated for use in asynchronous logic.
Since the optical cavity is a delay line, a laser can be regarded as a special case of the delay-line oscillator.